KOSPI Tumbles Over 3%, SoftBank Plunges 11%, SK Hynix and Kioxia Drop 6%

TradingKey - Japanese and South Korean stocks generally plunged, with the KOSPI falling over 3%, SoftBank slumping nearly 11%, and SK Hynix and Kioxia tumbling 6%.

During the Asian trading session on September 14, stock markets in Japan and South Korea opened significantly lower and continued to slide. Despite a brief mid-session rebound, they ultimately closed lower. Among them, the KOSPI Index fell 3.26% to close at 6,684.37 points, completely giving back last week's gains. Both major heavyweights suffered heavy losses: Samsung Electronics dropped 4.05%, breaching the 250,000 mark to close at 249,000 KRW; SK Hynix fell 6.35%, failing to reclaim the 1.7 million mark and closing at 1,697,000 KRW.

KOSPI Index chart, Source: TradingView

The Nikkei 225 Index proved more resilient, dropping over 2% intraday before narrowing its loss to 0.81% to close at 63,492.94 points. Two major heavyweights plummeted over 6%: Kioxia fell 6.37%, narrowly holding the 50,000 mark to close at 50,590 JPY; impacted by OpenAI delaying its IPO, SoftBank tumbled 10.72% to close at 5,839 JPY.

The downturn in Japanese and South Korean stock markets was driven by three main factors: rising US inflation triggering rate-hike concerns; a stronger yen fueling a wait-and-see stance on the South Korean won and monetary tightening; and liquidity adjustments alongside short-term risk-averse trading resulting from South Korea's implementation of a new system (the exchange officially launched extended night trading today).